Missing The Mark

I was listening to a preacher on the radio and he was talking about the word "sin" and it's actual translation. He said "sin" in it's original context was an archery term that simply meant that you missed the mark or missed the bullseye. This explanation is not new to me but it began to take on a different meaning when I began to think about it in the terms of an archery tournament.

Let's say you were in a tournament where you simply had to hit the bullseye in order to advance to the next round. The guy who goes before you misses the target, the bail of hay that the target is mounted on, and sends the arrow flying off into empty space. You confidently step up to take your shot and your arrow takes a beautiful flight only missing the mark by a centimeter. If this was a competition of comparison, you just won it hands down. You are clearly the better marksman. Here's the problem, it is not a competition of comparison, it is a competition of qualification. Regardless of whether you are a better marksman than the other guy, you are still not good enough to advance to the next round. You could appeal to the judge as much as you want and argue about how bad the other guy's shot was and it would make no difference. You did not hit the mark and so you are not qualified to go to the next round.

God says in his word to us that "all have sinned (missed the mark) and fallen short of the glory of God". Maybe the reason that the self-righteous have such a hard time understanding their need for the grace of God is that they still believe that they are in a competition of comparison.